Goldin spoke candidly about failure in his MIT address, drawing from his experience leading NASA through an era of ambitious but sometimes unsuccessful missions. He told the graduates what he told his own NASA employees after public failures witnessed by billions: that the absence of failure is not something to celebrate — it's something to worry about. He reminded the audience that Galileo himself was placed under house arrest for his beliefs, and that any meaningful pursuit of truth or innovation will inevitably involve setbacks. The real measure of character, Goldin argued, is not how you react to your successes but how you respond to your failures. If you're never failing, you're not reaching far enough.